Feed Limmy

25 April 2012

The Wanted ‘Chasing The Sun’ Music Video

These lads would’ve sent their careers to death row if they foisted one of their lesser past singles in America. After the skyscraping success of ‘Glad You Came’ – let’s be real about it – you know there was nothing of equal or greater value worth following on that Battleground album.

‘Chasing The Sun’ is a brand new recording pulled out of the hat to sensibly sustain the TGIF-party energy these boys are starting to be known for around the world.

The song is co-written by British rapper Example and producer Alex Smith, who hemmed Olly Murs‘ UK #1 hit ‘Heart Skips A Beat’.

Sun smart.

The music video for ‘Chasing The Sun’ sees The Wanted resume work with Director X, who was responsible for their ‘Glad You Came’ and ‘Warzone’ clips. Conceptually, it has thankfully got more going for it than just endless reels of the lads schmoozing females at a bar.

The whole “contagious transference of that sun tattoo” could’ve been snatched and re-tooled from a safe sex ad campaign? I don’t know. You tell me. I thought it was a good, working concept to execute visually and it fit very well with the theme.

Wanted: new stylist.

There is still something plain uninspiring about the way these fellas are portrayed on film. It’s them same tired ass, Roger David casual wear we’ve clocked before – leather jacket, tee and jeans.

There’s a fine line with dressing popstars that attract the young females’ gaze. Pop music videos are always built on the premise of fantasy – it’s about wishing you looked that good, wishing you could sexually assault one of the band members in a nightclub toilet cubicle, and wishing you could take their nice clothes after you’re done.

Sure, ladies want The Wanted to look relatable – like they’re regular guys you’d date or flirt with at a bar. Teenage boys wanting to impress their girlfriends want to be able to copy these looks within their means (whatever is available at their local mall/affordable on a fast food wage allowance).

That would’ve been fine for The Wanted to cater to in their first two or three music videos, perhaps. But these guys really need to raise the bar and challenge this pedestrian look they’ve rocked for far too long. Start playing with new colours, new textures, new hair styles. There is such a scope to play with in men’s fashion these days without feeling like they need to stay on one editorial page to avoid clashing with One Direction.

I mean, fuck, bitch. I feel like I’m Gok Wan running some sort of emergency tutorial right here – so help me.

Watch The Wanted go ‘Chasing The Sun’:

Footnotes:

The Wanted‘s ‘Chasing The Sun’ is out now but will impact US mainstream radios on 15 May. It’s just one of two new recordings to surface on their seven-track North American EP, The Wanted, which features five past singles.

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23 April 2012

Chart Feed – 23.04.12

Carly Rae Jepsen, you can’t shake this bitch. Her mega pop hit ‘Call Me Maybe’ continues to reign on the Australian and UK singles chart, beating down heavyweights like Delta Goodrem and Florence + The Machine.

New albums by Kate Miller-Heidke, Jason Mraz and Monica blow up the Australian, UK and US charts.

We trace the first imprints of The Voice Australia‘s impact on our ARIA Top 100 and look ahead to new releases from Reece Mastin, Maroon 5 and Alexandra Burke.

Read the rest of this entry »

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22 April 2012

Lana Del Rey ‘Carmen’ Music Video

Ms LDR has sent in ‘Carmen’ to pick up where ‘Video Games’ left off with its riveting juxtaposition of old film clippings and present day shots.

This is a sensible follow up to the music video that had us all enchanted with Lana Del Rey in the first place. I mean, from what I gather, it seems like Team Del Rey is slowly realising that the incidental magic that occurred when ‘Video Games’ went viral really was worth harnessing.

We’ve seen her label dip the Coney Island Queen in some serious money when they shot her ‘Born To Die’ video, then scale back to something more arthouse for ‘Blue Jeans’ and now with the revelation of ‘Carmen’ – she has rightfully come full circle.

Apart from the obvious mash up fashion, there’s actually a lot of similarities between ‘Video Games’ and ‘Carmen’. There are recurring clips rehashed in the montage like that one of the “Del Rey” sign, time-lapse footage of a red rose blooming, some of the same cartoon animations, and that one with 1940s red carpet photographers flashing their cameras.

There are also familiar shots of a woman riding at the back of a motorcycle without a helmet, except this time it’s Lana Del Rey and she’s sensibly not shown actually riding off without wearing appropriate protection.

‘Carmen’ reprises the same tragic, wasted young vixen tune sung before in so many show stoppers included in the Born To Die album. The depiction on film is therefore an appropriate reflection of that.

However, unlike ‘Video Games’ where there’s really just one female protagonist featured alongside clips of Lana singing, in ‘Carmen’ we get a mix of women and girls from all ages.

It all kind of comes together when you see these moving images soundtracked by such lyrics:

“Darlin’, darlin’. Doesn’t have a problem lying to herself ’cause her liquor’s top shelf. It’s alarming, honestly, how charming she can be fooling everyone, telling them she’s having fun.”

For a song that has long been a critics fave for its stark commentary on “party girl psychosis”, you really wish they went over the top and tempted lawsuits with actual paparazzi footage of Lindsay and Paris doing what they do to make them infamous headlines.

Watch the video for Lana Del Rey‘s ‘Carmen’:

Footnotes:

‘Carmen’ has not been officially touted as the fourth single from Born To Die but from what I understand, the video’s meant to be the final of LDR‘s trilogy – which is a crying shame given that we could do with at least two more videos in this style, perhaps for ‘This Is What Makes Us Girls’ or ‘National Anthem’.

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20 April 2012

Introducing John Rowley

Gurl, it’s hard getting your music heard out there, especially when you’re independent and completely working yourself from the ground up. I hear you.

But when you’re too time poor as it is to even keep up with major pop music news breaking on the daily, you’re definitely not gonna have time to deal with the truck loads of basic tracks pitched at you by deluded fame-whores and pushy PR peeps.

You’d have to credit my chance absorption of John Rowley‘s music to a winning combination of good timing and his clever, on-point writing.

This kid knows his fucking audience. He literally had me at:

“I’m in my first year of uni, studying a Bachelor Of Arts (Media & Communications) at the University of Sydney. A potential academic highlight so far has been writing a semiotic analysis of the video for ‘The Promise’ by Girls Aloud.”

I haven’t even heard a bar of his track and I already wanted to know more. Basically, my theory is you can’t really be that bad if you’re this well schooled in great Xenomania music. The 18-year old pedigree pop enthusiast is obviously on his way to completing a masters in this field.

John‘s probably not completely unknown to those who lurk around the corridors of Popjustice. His cover/mash up of Marina and The Diamonds/Foster The People was crowned ‘Song of The Day’ at one point.

However, his own original material ‘Stones From Glass Houses’ probably veers closer to the understated electro pop balladry of Sam Sparro‘s ‘Pocket’.

It’s classy, it’s dignified, and once you get past your initial hesitations about the Casio keyboard sound, ‘Stones From Glass Houses’ actually plays out to be a pretty engaging slice of electro pop.

The finished product could’ve probably done with a bit more colour and given John the kind of pop lift-off I know he would live for. But this is a good introduction to the young singer/songwriter’s abilities and, if anything, I’m now gagging to hear it remixed and taken to a whole new dimension.

Listen to John Rowley‘s ‘Stones From Glass Houses’:

Footnotes:

‘Stones From Glass Houses’ is out on John‘s Bandcamp page where you can name your price and download it.

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20 April 2012

Leak Report: Aiden Grimshaw ‘Is This Love’

Y’all remember Aiden from the 2010 UK X Factor series, right? The dapper young man who chilled spines with his spellbinding rendition of ‘Mad World’?

Well here he comes creeping out the gates with his debut single, ‘Is This Love’, and it’s thankfully more current, underground LDN electronica than weeping willow James Morrison. Seriously, thank fuck.

‘Is This Love’ is the first taste of Aiden‘s forthcoming album Misty Eye, which arrives in the UK on 13 August. The whole project’s spearheaded by London-based Aussie producer Jaz Rogers, who went from styling vanilla hits for Delta Goodrem in the early days, to now delivering cutting-edge electro pop productions for artists like Cat Torres.

What’s really exciting and refreshing about Aiden‘s record is hearing how the tasteful drum and bass/pop direction is pitching him as an artist in his own lane. It’s effortlessly cool, it’s current, and precisely the kind of good shit you wouldn’t expect for your Simon Cowells and Gary Barlows to pick for the kid.

Vocally, he’s like a brand new bitch. Gone are the shaky, waify vocals he was rocking on the X Factor and in with a confident falsetto and punchy delivery to complement the spiky electronic beats.

Listen to Aiden Grimshaw‘s ‘Is This Love’:

Footnotes:

Aiden‘s debut single ‘Is This Love’ drops on 3 June and the album Misty Eye follows on 13 August in the UK. The music video for ‘Is This Love’ was shot sometime last week, so y’all can expect to see that next month I reckon.

Judging by the favourable response to his series mates - One Direction, Rebecca Ferguson and Cher Lloyd – don’t be surprised if Aussies get served a slice of this.

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19 April 2012

Leak Report: Wynter Gordon ‘Still Getting Younger’ Remix EP

Call the morgue because this just killed me with extreme joy and vindication. Feed Limmy’s Song of 2011 - ‘Still Getting Younger’ – is coming for the clubs with a nifty, three-track remix EP.

This surfaced on Soundcloud this arvo, sending me falling off my chair after months of second guessing as to whether Neon Records/Warner Music was actually gonna do anything with Wynter Gordon‘s career-defining track.

The Nick Littlemore-produced dance number was an uncontested centrepiece of Wynter‘s debut album With The Music I Die and a part of me always saw it as the perfect Australian summer music festival soundtrack.

The original daydreamy, 80s nostalgia-ridden beats have been reinterpreted in a few ways on the remix EP.

Take a listen to snippets of the ‘Still Getting Younger’ remixes:

Footnotes:

Wynter Gordon‘s ‘Still Getting Younger’ remix EP will be made exclusively available on Beatport on 7 May. Who do I have to seduce at her label to see a proper music video come forth for this single?

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18 April 2012

Introducing Cat Torres

Oh. I was not prepared for the excellence this upcoming Melbourne artiste is flaunting so I’m just trying to prepare y’all, because I don’t want anyone wetting themselves in public when they hit play.

Meet Cat Torres, a feisty 20-year old local talent who’s rocking a killer combination of dub step, urban and underground rhythmic sensibilities.

Cat‘s debut single ‘Kitchen on Fire’ is a blinding knock out from every angle. It sounds like the kind of gritty East London dub track you would wish upon it British pop artists like Siobhan Donaghy or even the Original Sugababes when they re-present themselves in the near future.

We’re talking about whiplashing hooks rendered over acid-washed grime beats that’ll grab even the most casual of underground music listeners.

‘Kitchen on Fire’ is pretty much a sonic masterpiece by pop standards. It guides you from aggressive pounding beats to feminine and vulnerable verses in the most engaging fashion. Factor in that extra special seasoning of Spanish guitar in the interlude and outro – and you’re looking dead straight at a winner right here.

‘Kitchen on Fire’ is produced by The Presets‘ Julian Hamilton and London-based producer Jaz Rogers, who has worked with the likes of Daniel Merriweather and Lauryn Hill. Grammy-winning audio engineer Phil Tan, who boasts credits on smashes for Rihanna, Snoop Dogg and Mariah, ended up mixing this track in his home studio.

Hit play and decimate them speakers right now with ‘Kitchen on Fire’:

Footnotes:

Grab your free download of Cat Torres‘ debut single ‘Kitchen on Fire’ now while it’s hot. See what I did there?

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